The F. Scott Fitzgerald Literary Festival, which this year will honor Garrison Keillor, founder and host of A Prairie Home Companion and The Writer’s Almanac, invites writers to submit entries for the festival’s short story contest. There is no restriction on subject matter but stories must be fewer than 4,000 words and unpublished and only residents of Maryland, Virginia and Washington, D.C. are eligible to enter.  Entries for the 20th Annual F. Scott Fitzgerald Short Story Contest must be postmarked by Friday, Aug. 12, 2016.

Garrison Keillor will be the festival highlight when he receives the F. Scott Fitzgerald Award for Outstanding Achievement in American Literature.  Keillor went to work for Minnesota Public Radio in 1969, and on July 6, 1974, he hosted the first broadcast of A Prairie Home Companion in St. Paul. He is the host of The Writer’s Almanac,  the editor of the Good Poems series of anthologies from Viking, and author of nearly fifty books, including Lake Wobegon Days. The award is named in honor of F. Scott Fitzgerald, who is considered one of America’s finest writers and like Keillor, was born in Minnesota. Scott is buried in St. Mary’s Cemetery with his wife Zelda in downtown Rockville (did you know that he’s related to the author of our national anthem, Francis Scott Key, hence his name F. Scott?).

The award has been presented to some of America’s most distinguished writers, including Norman Mailer, Pat Conroy, John Updike and Joyce Carol Oates. The festival’s activities include writing workshops designed for emerging and established fiction and nonfiction writers, literary discussions, panels and a film screening. The festival is for writers and book lovers who are not themselves writers.  Festival sponsors include the City of Rockville; the F. Scott Fitzgerald Literary Conference, Inc.; and the Arts and Humanities Council of Montgomery County.

Learn more about the contest and festival at www.fscottfestival.org or by calling 301-309-9461.